Baby wallaby Cletus found safe after escape from New Jersey zoo

A baby wallaby known as Cletus ended his escape in a neighborhood, bringing a quick close to a small but visible zoo mishap in Cape May County. The joey had slipped out of the Cape May County Park and Zoo, which sits off Route 9 in Cape May Court House, and was later nabbed without injury.

The episode drew attention because the Cape May zoo had already made news earlier in 2025 for having a baby wallaby, or joey, peeking out of its mother’s pouch. That detail helped turn a routine containment problem into a local curiosity, with residents and zoo followers already familiar with the young animal.

Wallaby escapes have also been popping up elsewhere in South Jersey. In Williamstown, Rex broke out of Lots of Love Farm, an animal sanctuary and petting zoo at 1928 Corkery Lane, on Monday night, Dec. 29, 2025, then was captured the next night near Walmart. Police said they received several reports of the wallaby hopping around the Walmart area and warned people not to chase him.

Rex’s recovery showed how these incidents are handled when an exotic animal gets loose: quick warnings, a calm search, and help from people on the ground. In that case, the capture came with help from “some really cool kids and a really cool dad,” a reminder that neighborhood tips and bystanders can matter as much as formal response.

Cletus’s safe return suggests the same playbook worked again. The wallaby was located in a neighborhood after leaving the zoo, where a loose animal could have prompted far more concern if it had kept moving through town. Instead, the ending was straightforward: the joey was found, secured and accounted for, and the escape stayed a brief oddity rather than a larger public-safety problem.